Imperfect Histories: The Elusive past and the Legacy of Romantic Historicism Book

I love the book Frankenstein so wanted to read more about the author and to learn what led her to write such a fascinating book. Unfortunately, I ended up skimming or skipping much of Mellor's book because she focused on feminism, incest, immorality, etc, but I did learn 2 interesting things:

1) 200 years ago, when Mary Shelley wrote about putting together a man out of body parts gathered from animals and cemeteries, then giving him the "spark of life", there were actually many scientists attempting to bring dead things to life. Some scientists attached electric wires to dead creatures and could get the bodies to sit up, open an eye, even clench a fist. Creepy, but amazing!

2) Mary Shelley is showing that if someone (i.e. Victor) goes about creating offspring without both a father and a mother, the child would not turn out emotionally healthy and could even turn out to be a monster. I found this argument VERY interesting given the big conflict in California over same-sex marriage. Children deserve both a father and a mother, and the book Frankenstein is just one more proof of the importance to society of bringing children to the world in the "traditional" way! Yes on prop 8! Yes on traditional marriage!